At the Door
by Rayless Night
Summary: That moonlit night in Keterburg, Ion told the others that Jade was out walking with a woman. He didn't say why, and in the end, Jade never saw fit to tell them.


_Disclaimer: Tales of the Abyss is the property of Namco Bandai, though I suspect that even they cannot control Jade._

**At the Door**

"How does someone so young have such a command of chess?"

Ion looked almost abashed as he moved one of his bishops out of the range of Jade's remaining knight. "I sometimes have free time. Too much, I think."

Jade didn't press the issue, knowing that Ion was alluding to his lack of power within the Order. His only response was to slide his left rook forward to capture Ion's bishop. Ion took the defeat with grace. Jade was winning easily, but not as easily as he'd expected to. A few patrons of the Keterburg hotel paused as they moved through the sitting room to watch the game. In the clusters of overstuffed chairs, there were several chess tables, two gramophones, assorted five gald novels and one or two scholarly books simply put there to look nice. Every lantern had been lit, then turned down to a lulling glow. Glancing at one of the wide windows, Jade could see his reflection distinctly, the night and its constant snowfall only a shadow seen through him.

"Check," Ion said softly.

Jade made a quick study of the board, then slid his bishop left.

"Did you let me come that close to winning?" Ion asked. "On purpose?"

"I never admit to kindness," Jade watched Ion advance his queen two squares in order to guard his remaining bishop. "And you are wise enough to know that there is no virtue in falsely raising someone's hopes." He brought his knight forward, tapping away one of Ion's few remaining pawns. This sitting room was on a gallery raised above the lobby, and from below, he could hear a sudden uprising in the constant murmur of guests and employees. Shifting slightly in his arm chair, he leaned over the railing to see if Luke was about to start something - No, no sign of him.

"You've left your knight open." Ion narrowed his eyes with concentration, then lifted them to Jade. "You must want me to take it." He moved his bishop away from the knight.

Into the line of Jade's left rook. As Jade set Ion's bishop to the side, mentally forming an observation about seeing the whole of an issue, not its immediate concerns, he glanced down into the lobby again. Most of the figures were bypassing the lobby, lingering only to check in or glance at the menus posted for tomorrow's meals. One figure stood at the open door, letting the snow eddy in.

"Check," Ion said, more dubiously this time, one of his pawns threatening Jade's king.

Jade's red eyes flicked over, and he sent one of his rooks over to remove the pawn, which placed his rook at the mercy of Ion's queen. Ion had suffered too much at the hands of that rook to show mercy. It had been a bad trade on Jade's part, but necessary in protecting the king.

"What did you see down there?" Ion asked, visibly bracing as Jade considered his next assault. He half-stood to look over the railing. "What's she doing?"

In anyone else - say Anise, or Luke - certainly Anise - Jade would have suspected a ploy to make him look away from the board, but Ion simply didn't have that in him. Jade looked over again. The figure at the door, a blonde woman in a dark blue overcoat, was studying a paper. It was probably one of the mass-printed maps of Keterburg, issued to help tourists navigate the intricate town. "Trying to find her way, I suppose." While Jade turned to clobber Ion's queen, Ion continued to watch the woman at the door. Jade waited for the boy to lose interest, but Ion's eyebrows angled up with sympathy.

"Your Holiness," Jade said, using the title for effect, "I have long observed your ability to read the hearts of those in need. It is a testimony to your great sympathy and kind nature, and it has the potential to get you into a world of hurt." He reached for his glass of brandy. "Please assure me you are not indulging it now."

Ion answered by extricating himself from his overstuffed chair and heading for the stairs to the lobby. Sighing, Jade pushed his glasses up his nose and followed.

"...anything I can do to help?" Ion was asking by the time Jade sauntered next to him.

The woman looked at them both dubiously, a frown folding between her eyes. As best as Jade could guess, she was in her twenties and spoke with a Chesedonian accent. "Well - I can't find my house."

Jade tipped his head to the side but left Ion to do the talking. "Have you moved here recently?"

"No - that is, I came here two months ago." The woman folded the map and stowed it in her coat. "But I've never seen such a heavy snowfall, and..." She cleared her throat. "What with the snow and night, I'm afraid I'll miss my turn-off and lose track of where I am."

Jade sighed and wished Guy was there to hand this off to. But, even as Ion was turning to him, he said, "Ion, will you go upstairs and check on the others? I rely on you to keep them out of mayhem in my absence."

The woman's frown deepened as she looked at Jade, but then she seemed to realize she'd limited her options by putting the map away. Or perhaps she studied Ion's innocent face and took faith from that.

Jade turned to the door, held out his arm, and resigned himself to helpfulness. "Which street do you live on?"

"East Begonia." Businesslike, she tucked her arm into his and allowed herself to be lead out of the warmth of the lobby. The streets swirled with darkness and snowflakes, though the downfall was lessening. Streetlamps glowed out from the winding avenues. Jade only needed a moment to orient himself and turned right. The thinnest film of ice crackled under their boot heels. For the first street, they walked in silence broken only by the woman coughing once.

They turned onto West Bluebell. "You are Chesedonian?" Jade asked, less out of interest than not wanting to walk the long distance to East Begonia in silence. Silence he could have appreciated from his teammates, but from a stranger, it was simply tedious.

"Yes."

"Keterburg must be quite the change of scenery."

"I thought it would be." She hesitated, slowing as they made their way over a thicker slag of ice. "But all the snow looks too much like the desert. It used to snow on the desert too, at night. It's all just the same."

"Perhaps you should move to Engeve," Jade said, guiding her onto North Celandine. "You'd never mistake_ it_ for a desert."

"I thought the cold would be nice," she said faintly. She winced. (Jade hoped, just for hope's sake, she'd realized how idiotic that had sounded.) "That is - yes, I was looking for something different. And now I'm out here, lost looking for my own house."

"Undoubtedly you will come to familiarize yourself with the town." Jade squinted through the snow - it had lessened even further - to see if they'd come up to Southwest Tigerlily yet. No, it must be the next turn-off. "At all times of the day or night."

"Is it very far still?"

"Far enough. You've come quite a ways from home." They turned onto Southwest Tigerlily. "Do you have family waiting up?"

She half-coughed, half-cleared her throat. "No. I came out alone."

Jade waited a bit before speaking again, listening to her breathing. "Family's back in Chesedonia?" She nodded. Under the pretense of helping her around an icy pool, he stepped closer to her. Her breathing was shallow, and as she stepped aside, drew in breath, it rattled. "I hope you'll be able to go back and visit them soon."

The woman nodded. "My mom's worried I'll get sick."

Jade knew how to ask an important question lightly. As they stepped onto South-Southwest Black Eyed Susan, he held one hand up to hide a yawn and said, "Have you felt sick? Keterburg can be brutal, especially to newcomers."

"I've been tired, but then, I'm still getting used to this place. I work at one of the gel apothecaries."

"Not an easy job," Jade said, not from any specific knowledge of gel apothecaries, merely because everyone liked to hear their job was difficult. Most of his attention was on her cough. He hardly qualified to be called a doctor - at least, the sort of doctor that knew one cough from another - but knew he hadn't often heard such harsh rattling before. "Perhaps you should request some time off, give yourself a chance to get your feet."

"I'm fine," she said abruptly, gathering her breath.

The snowfall had almost vanished, a few stray flakes dropping unexpectedly. The clouds had broken, a full moon silvering the streets and ice-laden roofs. Jade exhaled a small plume of smoke, as though he'd just taken a drag from a cigar.

"Do you like Keterburg?" Perhaps it was the first genuine question he'd asked all night.

She waited before answering, narrowing her eyes in thought. A cat trotted across the street in front of them, its paws soundless on the ice.

"I like it." Her voice was too thin; she cleared her throat, took an uneven breath. "There's no one here that knew me in Chesedonia. I can have a totally different life now."

Jade glanced down at her, but she didn't look up. "You've no desire to go back to Chesedonia?" She nodded. "Even for your health?"

Tension caught her eyes and forehead. "Like I said..." She shook her head. "I won't let a cold send me back." Jade nodded as she coughed again. "Besides, health's so unpredictable. You can be sick one week and well the next. Don't you think so?"

"It can happen."

"I know I have this cough." She looked firmly away. "But I've had coughs on and off for the past two months, and I've been fine. There've been times when I've felt perfect. I'm just getting used to this place."

Sparing his face from any expression, Jade gestured to a street sign. "East Begonia." The buildings were mostly tenements, though by no means the worst of the city. She released his arm. "Allow me to guide you to your door," Jade started, because it was expected of an escort.

She waved him off. "Thank you. Should I - uh-" She put her hand in her pocket and withdrew a money purse, raising her eyebrows at him.

"No need."

She studied him, as if seeing him by moonlight revealed things she hadn't noticed in the hotel's lobby. She tightened her lips, then blinked. "You have no coat."

Jade put his hands behind his back. "I always misplace it."

"Well, thank you." She turned and carefully made her way over the ice.

If there was one thing Jade disliked - and there was far more than one thing Jade disliked - it was unnecessary interference. But he just as heartily disliked needless passivity. If it were one of his friends, Peony or even Luke, he wouldn't hesitate to speak. And if it were a complete stranger, he would only speak at great necessity. This woman had crossed into a hazy No Man's Land somewhere between the two, and he was momentarily uncertain.

"Miss," he said when she stopped in front of the door. She turned back, far enough away that her face was only a pale circle in the moonlight. But it was quiet enough that he hardly had to raise his voice. "I recommend that you have that cough checked."

"What do you know?" He saw her shoulders brace defensively under the blue coat. "Are you a doctor?"

"Of a type." Her posture remained defensive. Jade chose his words carefully. "And there is no point in raising your hopes in Keterburg if it kills you." When it came to matters of life and death, he usually dealt with them in the heat of battle, where ethics were abandoned for pragmatism. He rarely preached. It always felt...wrong, coming from himself. He knew that he'd preach sooner to a friend than a stranger, and here he was trying to persuade an acquaintance whose name he didn't know. He felt no emotional concern for her, only a disquiet, a perfectionist's need to set things right. Perhaps he felt some concern.

The woman tilted her face away from him. "You think my cough sounds that bad?"

"I see no point in lying to you." He didn't sound persuasive to his own ears. The woman wanted to be free of her family and was willing to risk her life to satisfy that want. There was a certain pragmatism to that as well. Pragmatism, Jade had learned, offered easy solutions, but not always happiness.

She studied the cobblestones, moon-glazed and icy, for a long moment, then lifted her head. "Thank you for worrying. You don't even know me." She hesitated. "You must be a kind person."

Jade smiled faintly. "Of a type."


End file.
